Best Lipstick Formulas 2019

I'm back, bitches! I have to submit a few more job and postdoc applications later this month, but most were due either Oct. 15 or Nov. 1, so I'll be able to resume a regular blogging schedule in the weeks to come. I can't properly articulate how good it feels to be done! (Well, sort of done. In academia, almost nothing is ever truly done.) It's just as well that I'm returning to my blog, since my list of products to review has been getting longer and longer —t his is actually the seventh draft post I've started to write in the last three weeks. I've resolved not to buy any more beauty products until I've finished reviewing everything I've accumulated in the last month or two, and I've accumulated quite a lot. But all that in good time. By a stroke of great fortune, my birthday, on Nov. 2, coincided with my university's fall break, my boyfriend's fall break, and my completion of applications. We took the train into New York and spent m...

October has always been my favorite month. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, my love of seasonal makeup has a lot to do with my upbringing. My parents and I lived in Boston until I was seven, when we moved to San Francisco. I spent the next ten years pining for "real seasons," especially fall, and I'll never forget the childlike joy of catching falling leaves during my first semester of college back in Massachusetts. I'm given to understand that appreciating the glory of fall is now a symptom of basic bitchery, I suppose because it's not a rarefied pleasure available to a select few. This article (since when does Buzzfeed quote Bourdieu?) notes the classism inherent in the "basic bitch" insult. I don't agree with all of the writer's points, but it's worth a read. In any case, I refuse to be ashamed of my autumnal raptures. Where I live now, there are about six weeks per year when it's actually pleasant to be outside, and October...

First, thanks to everyone who left advice on my last post! I didn't have time to respond to all the comments, but rest assured that your input is deeply appreciated. 2015 will certainly go down in makeup history as the year of the brown lipstick. Dark gothy brown, '90s-style midtone warm brown, muddy red, and the strangest brown of all: a cool-toned gray-brown, often with a hint of purple. I don't know why undead lips have become so wildly popular this year, but they've been everywhere in the last few months. MAC Stone is the best-known example, but there are many others, mostly from Insta-friendly trendy brands. ColourPop alone has three gray-toned browns in its equally trendy liquid-matte formula: Trap , Kapow , and Beeper . But my distaste for liquid mattes is no secret , and the zombie lipstick that caught my eye last month was a conventional bullet: Topshop Boardroom, which I mentioned in my recent wishlist post . The elephant in the boardroom, so to speak, is tha...

(Apologies to Jenny Holzer , of course.) The stress of the job market has me feeling extra-acquisitive, as witness my latest impulse purchases: L-R: KBShimmer Open Toad Shoes, Zoya Fei Fei, Essie Leggy Legend, Milani Matte Fearless. But that's not enough, oh no. I want still more, because when I'm trying to relax I tend to immerse myself in the online beautysphere, and I have the bad habit of using Google to hunt down my Platonic ideals of color, formula, and finish. In a perfect world, I'd spend that time experimenting with new techniques using the products I already have, but this is far from a perfect world. I'm hoping that writing out my wishlist in a blog post will be just as cathartic as actually buying the stuff. If not, well, I just got my September paycheck. Lipstick: 1. Pinkish-red satin This is one of those dangerous Platonic ideals. I've spent a lot of time putting off my actual responsibilities by scouring the Internet for the epitome of cherry-red gorg...

"Look, you stupid bastard, you've got no arms left!" If you frequent the company of middle-aged male professors who specialize in Renaissance history or literature, chances are good you'll hear a lot of Monty Python references. A few years ago, after too much time spent laughing politely at allusions that went over my head, I got around to watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I found it mildly amusing but not uproariously funny (except for the Black Knight scene , above), so maybe you need to have been a teenage British boy in the 1970s to truly understand its hilarity. This is a very roundabout way of introducing something I've been pondering: the concept of beauty "holy grails." In recent procrastinatory moments, I've been searching for better versions of a few things I already own: a cherry-red lipstick, a black liquid liner, a lightweight facial sunscreen, and a yoga mat. I began this post intending to ask your opinion on some candidates I...